News Article

Wii Mini Is Hitting The UK On March 22nd

The Wii Mini — otherwise known as the hardware revision that nobody asked for — is coming to the UK on March 22nd.

The system was launched last year as a Canadian exclusive, but we'd recently heard rumours that it was getting a wider release this year. A scaled-down edition of the original Wii console — which has sold almost 100 million units globally — the Wii Mini has a different design and no internet connectivity whatsoever.

To coincide with the launch, Nintendo is releasing several classic titles under the Nintendo Selects banner.

There's no word on pricing as yet, but in Canada it cost $99.99 — which translates to just over £60. Will this price point convince you to open your wallet? Leave a comment to let us know.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

@Burning_Spear
That's true, but I went snooping around Canadian online retailers (where the Mini has been available for a while) and what I found was pretty shocking: it looks like Nintendo has been phasing out all the other Wii SKUs. I couldn't find a single major retailer that was selling any new Wiis other than the Mini.

For a latecomer who wants a shiny new Wii, that's probably really irritating. At this point it looks like the only other option is a used Wii (which is cheaper than Mini anyway). If they're rolling the Mini out in the UK, this might be your last chance to pick up a more capable Wii.

Here in the US, you can still get a non-GCN-playing Wii with internet and component support AND Wii Sports Resort for only $130. Why this still isn't an option for the upper half of North America eludes me. It's a much better deal for both 'casuals' AND 'hardcores'.

Still waiting for Australian confirmation so that I can add this to my collection. I think that I'm only missing SNES, Virtual Boy, GBA Micro and DSi XL of the really major ones now so I may as well get a Mini to keep.
I need a SNES first though.

100% for casual gamers, families, my grandma, or just as a party-console. there will a small number of customers, but it`s quite funny to develop and sell a death console, with not even a single new game

Why oh why oh why, Nintendo need to push the Wii U more in the UK, not sell a new version of the outgoing Wii that retains non of all the features of the original. The only reason, I can see of Nintendo doing this, is that they will remove from circulation the current Wii model and offer this against the WII U with all the features. But they are running a huge risk in my eyes of cannibalisng Wii U sales with this .

well i have my WiiU to play my Wii games now (gave my old Wii away when i updtated to the WiiU it was first Nintendo console i got rid of) and so do many others or the original Wii so bringing this out now just seems a little stupid if you ask me plus no internet connection so no Wii Shop and no VC games, i really can't see this selling at all

not so bad considering you get a nice red motion plus included. and the retail price on those things individually is +/- £40. nintendo will have an idea of how many people ever connect their wii's to the internet and it's probably a lowish percentage. so this seems like a reasonable model to push in the future, especially in 'emerging' markets.